James Harden Has to Stop Wearing His Favorite Shoes

NBA star and professional pot-stirrer James Harden is coping with the end of summer very well. Namely, because he's James Harden. But also because he signed a monster deal with Adidas to become, essentially, the newest face of the lifestyle and sports brand. For the deal, Harden will rake in roughly $200 million over the course of the next 13 years, beginning October. Nice! To do this, however, he had to leave the good people at Nike, which is a bummer for Harden because he's been with them since he entered the league, and as was pointed out recently, he loves Air Jordans:

There he is, doing his best Elliott from E.T. impression, wearing some sick J's. Why is this a big deal? At the crux of the Adidas coup is the idea that Harden will reinvigorate the brand's off-court appeal. How does one do that? By wearing Adidas all the time, of course. Mark King, the president of Adidas North America, told ESPN that beginning October 1, Harden will no longer be able to wear Nikes, or any other Adidas competitors for that matter. "That's part of the deal," he said, elaborating:

The difference between football and basketball is that a guy like Aaron Rodgers doesn't have a walk-around shoe. ... Harden does, and he will be in our lifestyle stuff.